The 2015 budget bill and the economic arrangements bill will be presented for their first Knesset reading on Monday in the Knesset plenum. The opposition factions are expected to stage a filibuster of only a few hours against the bills. After the vote, the proposals in the economic arrangements bill will be separated for discussion in the various Knesset committees, depending on the topic for discussion.
Over the coming month, the Knesset committees will discuss the law's provisions until they are ready for their second and third readings in late December. In contrast to previous years, as decided by Minister of Finance Yair Lapid, the 2015 economic arrangements bill will be confined to budgetary legislation and four reforms. While limiting the arrangements bill will avoid criticism of Lapid for sponsoring anti-democratic legislation, in the absence of Finance Ministry restraint, there will be no reserve fund, and Knesset members seeking allotments for their pet causes are liable to cause budget gaps.
Coalition sources experienced in the budget process criticized the Finance Minister's decision to submit a limited bill to the Knesset. They asserted that he was himself was fostering further across-the-board cuts in the ministerial budgets, instead of introducing additional legislation open to negotiations in the Knesset.
A week afterwards, the 0% VAT bill will be brought to the Knesset plenum for its second and third readings. This will be preceded next week by a discussion by the Knesset Finance Committee of all the remaining clauses. The haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Knesset members pledged yesterday to continue their campaign against the bill. "We have to concentrate all our efforts on continuing the struggle against the 0% VAT bill. We'll continue forward with the campaign," said MK Yakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism), and called on the Knesset members to register their objections to the bill.
Meanwhile, the bill designed to prevent the distribution of the Israel Hayom newspaper, identified with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will not be brought up for a vote this week as planned, due to the shortage of time on the Knesset agenda caused by Rabin Memorial Day. After the ministerial legislative committee released MKs on Sunday from party discipline on the vote, it appears that the vote will go no further.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 4, 2014
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